Tiramisu Cake

Sign Up

Get all our recipes sent to you for FREE!

Email address

First Name

Tiramisu is one of my absolute favourite desserts. I love the creamy mascarpone and I love the mellow coffee flavour but what I love most is that it was one of my moms favourite desserts, and one she made incredibly well! My dad always jokes that my mom put so much alcohol in her tiramisu, after 3 bites you were drunk as a skunk! I remember one year at Christmas she made a huge dish of tiramisu but I never even tasted it…none of the kids were allowed in fact. She confessed that instead of adding a few tablespoons of Tia Maria, she actually added half the bottle! I also remember that Christmas being particularly “Merry”…

So I decided to take this classic dessert and turn it into a delicious cake. Not like this is a new concept but I wanted to keep the cake as close to Tiramisu, taste-wise so I just transferred all the tastes to a sponge cake base. I decided to bake a light coffee sponge which would be just perfect when brushed with a coffee and liqueur syrup and topped with the creamy mascarpone layer. I finished the cake off with a ‘border’ of finger biscuits (lady fingers) and a good grating of dark chocolate. Finally some cocoa powder was dusted on and we could tuck in. My guests all “mmm”-ed and “aah”-ed as they were eating and I can honestly say that this was one of the most delicious cakes I have ever made. The sponge was light and moist, the mascarpone layer was ever-so-slightly sweet and coffee-flavoured and the chocolate and cocoa added the perfect amount of bitterness. Perfection in cake form!

Pre-heat the oven to 180°c and grease two (+-) 30cm cake pans and line the bottom with baking paper.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

In a different bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk to combine.

Add the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture one by one, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and mix well.

Add the ground coffee/instant coffee to the warm milk and mix until dissolved.

Add the flour mixture and the milk/coffee alternating to the the butter, sugar and eggs mixture. Make sure to mix well after each addition.

The batter should be quite aerated and ‘moussey’ when all the ingredients have been mixed in.

Divide the batter between the prepared cake pans and place in the pre-heated oven.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until a skewer inserted in the cakes comes out clean.

Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan before turning out onto a cooling rack and allowing to cool completely.

In the meantime, get started on the mascarpone filling and the coffee syrup.

For the syrup, combine the sugar, water, coffee and Frangelico in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and set aside.

For the mascarpone layer, in a large bowl, beat the mascarpone and double cream until thick. Add the sifted icing sugar and mix until well combined.

Whilst mixing, slowly pour in the strong coffee and continue mixing until all the coffee has been incorporated.

When the cakes are cool, brush the coffee syrup over the cakes until most of it has been absorbed. Spread 1/3 of the mascarpone mixture onto one of the cakes and sandwich with the remaining cake layer. Top the cake with the rest of the mascarpone mixture and cover the whole cake with it.

To decorate, press the finger biscuits around the outside of the cake and top the cake with the grated chocolate. Add a dusting of cocoa powder and serve.

Being a general food freak has proven to be quite helpful in this career I've found myself in. Author of two cookbooks, photographer, food stylist. Mom to twins. Ex make-up and hair artist obsessed with beautiful clothes and spaces. I love a good G&T and I've been known to spend too much money on shoes.

Toni, I would refrigerate it if you’re not serving it on the day you make it. In that case, remove it from the fridge 1 hour before you plan on serving it so that it gets time to come to room temperature.

Tiramisu is my favourite Dessert so when I found this recipe I decided to prepare it for my 6th wedding anniversary, in a mini version, it was really easy to prepare, I couldn’t resist the temptation to try it before sharing it with my husband, the cake is absolutely Delicious, love it. My husband was very surprised with the results. Thank you for sharing this recipe

hi,wanna try..is this salted butter to be used or an unsalted one,can u pls tell me if i can use dream whip as heavy cream n how can i measure thick cream into liquid state,as u have mentioned in mls..

In step 14, “Whilst mixing, slowly pour in the strong coffee and continue mixing until all the coffee has been incorporated.”, what coffee is this because the coffee syrup is brushed over the cake. Do we need to make the syrup and add one lot to the mascarpone and one lot to the cake? Please clarify as I would love to make this ……Tiramisu is also our favourite dessert. Thanks

Yvonne, you’ll see at the ingredients list for the Mascarpone layer/filling it states you need 2 Tbsp strong coffee. This is what you need to pour in slowly whilst continuously whisking. I hope you enjoy the cake when you’ve baked it. 🙂

Lindy, it’s very hard for me to give you ml measurements as I only ever weigh my dry ingredients but 350g flour is approximately 650ml and 300g sugar is approximately 350ml. I can’t be sure that these measurements are 100% correct though and I would suggest you rather weight the ingredients to ensure a successful end result.